NFL teams are combing through information gathered at the Combine and will spend the next two months digging even deeper on all the prospects. Yet by draft day, not only will teams whiff on a pick, at least one has a chance to whiff on an entire slate of picks. It’s happened plenty of times before, a draft that not only was no help, it hurt, for years to come.

These are the worst drafts teams have conducted since 2000, the biggest wastes of the allotted seven rounds by a front office in a single year, top to bottom. Note the repeat offenders, one in particular: the immortal Matt Millen.

View FullscreenClose

2007 Oakland Raiders: QB JaMarcus Russell

It was Russell, but it was so much more. The Raiders picked 11 players, and by last season none of them was on their roster. Maybe second-round TE Zach Miller or fourth-round RB Michael Bush could salvage it, but they've been gone for a couple years. Nevertheless, when you pick No. 1 overall and take a quarterback, you can't miss on him, and you definitely can't miss this badly.

View FullscreenClose

2003 Detroit Lions: WR Charles Rogers

Rogers was the second overall pick in the draft. What more needs to be said, other than that of the 11 players the Lions took, 10 of them were out of the league within five years. They went strong with the family ties, though, picking the younger brothers of stars Champ Bailey and Torry Holt. No, they passed on Fredo Corleone.

View FullscreenClose

2005 Detroit Lions: WR Mike Williams

Ranked this high because they should have learned from their mistakes? They made Williams, who had sat out his previous season at Southern Cal, the 10th pick. Second-round DT Shaun Cody had a decent career, most of it away from Detroit. Fifth-rounder Dan Orlovsky is now a verb for stepping out of the back of the end zone for a safety ("Geno Smith just Orlovsky'd, didn’t he?")

View FullscreenClose

2000 Cincinnati Bengals: WR Peter Warrick

This was in the midst of their long slog through the NFL cellar before Marvin Lewis arrived, when Mike Brown was running things on a shoestring. They're the ones who fell in love with Warrick. They also drafted a kicker, in the sixth round, generally not considered wise. To their credit, Neil Rackers had a nice career. It was just with other teams.

View FullscreenClose

2008 Cleveland Browns: first-round pick traded for QB Brady Quinn

They're here because of the first-round pick they didn't make that year … because they traded it away in the previous year's draft to move up and take Brady Quinn. (Yes, 2007 was the year the big QB debate: Russell vs. Quinn.) They also traded their second- and third-round picks for players that never amounted to much. One of the five players they did take in the fourth round and later, defensive lineman Ahtyba Rubin in the sixth round, was there through the 2013 season.

View FullscreenClose

2002 Detroit Lions: QB Joey Harrington

Matt Millen’s second draft in charge. No one knew. Harrington at No. 3 overall, as the quarterback of the future, didn't seem insane at the time. Again, a wealth of picks, nine in all, and defensive end Kalimba Edwards was the only one who stuck around more than a few years. Sadly for him, one of them was the 0-16 season of 2008, also the year they finally pulled the plug on Millen.

View FullscreenClose

2005 Minnesota Vikings: WR Troy Williamson

A very underrated stinker of a draft. It was led by a pair of first-rounders, Williamson and DE Erasmus James, who are living examples of college hype not translating at all to the NFL. This season was the end of the Mike Tice era, as well as their first without Randy Moss, which explains a lot.

View FullscreenClose

2002 Arizona Cardinals: DE Wendell Bryant

Their draft in 2006 was a solid contender, considering 10th-overall pick Matt Leinart topped it. At least '06 produced one solid player, G Deuce Lutui, which is one more than '02 did. Bryant was the 12th overall pick, and don't feel bad if you don’t remember a single thing he did (he was gone from the NFL after three seasons). The only one who left a mark? Their third-round pick, 2004 starter and emergency fill-in QB Josh McCown.

View FullscreenClose

2005 Buffalo Bills (first-rounder traded for J.P. Losman)

Another team that outsmarted itself by trading a future pick for their chosen one at quarterback. The Bills moved their No. 1 in ’05 for a late No. 1 in ’04—so they could beat everybody to J.P. Losman. KR Roscoe Parrish is the only player picked who had a decent run there. The saddest aspect of this draft: third-round TE Kevin Everett, who was paralyzed by a hit in the 2007 season opener and never played again, although he did walk again by season’s end.

Advertisement

View FullscreenClose

2008 Washington Redskins (TE Fred Davis)

Amazingly, vice president Vinny Cerrato kept his job for another year after this fiasco. He swapped picks with Atlanta, and while the Falcons' haul produced three starters, Washington's end of it brought back WR Devin Thomas (gone by '10) and Davis. Colt Brennan, a late-round quarterback project, flopped. So did the punter picked in the sixth round, Durant Brooks, cut in midseason.